GASTONIA, N.C. — The city of Gastonia unveiled its new Real Time Crime Center on Thursday. Police now have access to nearly 170 cameras to help solve crimes, but some people worry it gives officers too much access.
The company that provides Gastonia’s new camera system said another unnamed city that created the same center saw homicides go from 63% solved to 100% solved.
“It’s going to save lives,” said North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson.
Eight people will monitor dozens of cameras owned by the city and more owned by businesses and residents.
The city plans to add a drone to the system next year.
“What we can only previously envision in the movies and on television becomes a reality for people of Gaston County,” said Gaston County District Attorney Travis Page.
It’s a reality for a developer that had thieves target homes under construction.
He put Flock cameras on the property and linked it with Gastonia’s system leading to arrests.
Jay Stanley, a policy analyst for the ACLU in Washington, said the cameras are caching and storing images of innocent people.
“I’m just living my life. Why does police have to have a record of that?” Stanley said.
He said images from the 5,000 Flock cameras in use run through AI which is evaluating where you drive.
“If you happen to travel in some pattern that this computer algorithm, this AI thinks is ‘suspicious.’ The police are going to have their eye on you,” Stanley said.
He said you won’t know they are watching.
Channel 9’s Ken Lemon asked a Flock representative about that. They said that is not the point of the system.
“Flock is not a predictive policing company,” the Flock rep said Thursday. “We utilize AI to make investigations.”
The city will keep data saved on the cameras for 30 days.
They would need permission from the courts to save video longer.
The ACLU representative said in New Hampshire, if police don’t get a hit on their license plate reader, the data must be deleted after three minutes.
He said Gastonia should explore that option.
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